Interesting interview with Dr.Azzam Tamimi regarding the situation in Gaza with the Israelis tightening the noose around Gaza. Particularly revealing is the the Egyptian regimes hand in this crime against the Palestinian people, perhaps the next demonstration against the siege of Gaza should be held outside the Egyptian embassy..

Tightening The Noose Around Gaza - Interview with Dr.Azzam Tamimi

interview by Jonathan Charles, Hardtalk , BBC News 2422 January 2008

"You have to continue to fight until you are free, you are fighting for freedom, you can't live as a slave.."

Dr.Azzam Tamimi, Palestinian academic of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought, interviewed on Hardtalk. Some highlights are transcribed below, full interview is available as audio above.

[QUESTION] President Bush says he has renewed zeal, he says there will be a peace deal in a years time, by the time he leaves office in January 2009, do you share his confidence?

Not at all, I don't think Bush came to the region for peace. He came for his own purposes, he came in order to sell the Gulf countries more weapons for no use what so ever; and to give a green light to Edhud Olmert to hit Gaza hard.

[QUESTION] If there is to be peace its going to require both sides to recognise each other. Hamas will have to decide its going to recognise Israel if there is to be any step forward?

No, this issue of recognition is naive and is childish. You see for the Palestinians its impossible to recognise that what happened to them in 1948 was legitimate, was right. We were dispossessed, the Jews came from Europe to solve their own problem in Europe and to solve the European problem at the expence of the Palestinians. My mother was dispossessed of her home, my father of his land, and millions of Palestinians suffered the same fate. How can it be right? We cannot recognise that as being legitimate.

[QUESTION] Even countries in the Arab world want Hamas to stop the rockets. Your neighbour there Egypt, next to Gaza, they say they want Hamas to stop those rocket attacks, they don't have much time for Hamas. Jordan hasn't got much time for Hamas - kicked Hamas out thats why they had to move to Syria..

You know the problem with these regimes is that they receive millions of dollars from the United States every year - Egypt receives 2 billion dollars every year - and they hate to loose any of it, and this money, much of this money, goes to the pockets of those in charge of the government - so much corruption. Jordan lives on the aid that comes from overseas. Its not because of, that Hamas is seeking to struggle or put up a resistance, its because these regimes are first, not sovereign; they don't represent their people; thirdly they rely on foreign aid in order to continue.

[QUESTION] Well Egypt could help you out quiet a lot in Gaza couldn't it? After all it does provide some electricity generation to Gaza - it could do more, it could fill the gap that Israel has left by blocking fuel supplies...

Off course, off course, Egypt can resolve the problem in Gaza, it can bring an end to the suffering of the Palestinians - see the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is an entirely Egyptian - Palestinian crossing and the Egyptians can open it as they did open it when the pilgrims passed through. At the moment the Egyptians provide electricity to the town of Rafah of part of it, they could provide electricity for the entire Gaza strip. Even the oil - the diesel that is denied by the Israelis to the Palestinians today and ended up stopping the generator that provides Gaza City with electricity comes from Egypt..

[QUESTION] But they don't, why not? They won't help..

The Egyptians, they won't help because they want to keep on receiving the 2 billion dollar bribe from the Unites States of America. You see this is the point here, the democratic governments of the West - the Unites States and Western Europe - are corrupting these Arab regimes, these regimes that are dictators, they are tyrannical, they don't respect human rights and they continue to receive support - financial, military as well as political support to suppress their peoples!

"Everywhere we went (in Gaza) the same question was on every body's lips - 'You are here but where are the Arabs?' One little girl said to me 'where is this Arab world that they teach us about in school? Where is this Ummah that they talk to us about on Fridays? Why did they leave us alone?'. That's what she said to me, with tears in her eyes 'why did they leave us alone?' I had to turn my face away from her when she said it, and I'm not an Arab, I had to turn away.. I couldn't face her in the face of such a question.."